, 2003-03-03
The Justice Department's plan to make routine encryption illegal in the hands of criminals will hurt law abiding citizens, and prove catastrophic for Internet security.
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The Consequences of Criminalizing Crypto
2003-03-03
Anonymous (2 replies)
Anonymous (2 replies)
1) The government is obviously attempting to extend their reach by criminalizing normal behavior. OK, I guess that is possible - perhaps even probable for some "G Men." However it is a fairly transparent attempt that will have potential economic affects (Amazon, your friendly bank) as well as affect other government agencies. (The IRS *LIKES* e-file, and probably does not want to discourage people from using it.)
2) This type of proposed legislation is written by people with tunnel vision, looking at a solution to a particular problem (terrorists encrypting their e-mail) but who are more or less ignorant of the big picture. Compare this proposal to the SSSCA/CBDTPA, which would require a Commerce Department approved anti-copy device for a singing fish toy. I'm sure that the people who drafted CBDTPA didn't sit around talking about the dangers of singing plastic fish.
I lean more towards option number 2. These people apparently have a very basic understanding at best of the subject matter at hand. For that matter *I* have a basic understanding of the subject matter, and I can see the problems your article talks about. Anyway - they want to control encrypted e-mail or message traffic, and they didn't even stop to think that their kid's Rescue Heroes game that is illegally installed on two computers at home (because FBI agents love their kids too) might encrypt the marketing data it phones home. It might encrypt the very data that would indicate its being installed twice, leading to the interesting situation of the very tool that led to the discovery of the crime being a justification for a nasty gram from the BSA, plus an extra 5 years for the now ex-FBI agent.
Either way, articles like this serve to spotlight poorly written legislation that need to be put under closer scrutiny. It might be better to jazz up the conspiracy theory side of it though, as a nameless G Man 'deep throat' that wants to control the internet might attract more mainstream attention. Sadly, I think that very few of our honorable Members of Congress visit SecurityFocus on a regular basis.
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